Unleash the Hounds! (Link Roundup)

There are lots of articles and essays of interest to modern Pagans out there, sometimes more than I can write about in-depth in any given week. So The Wild Hunt must unleash the hounds in order to round them all up.

Performance artist and sex educator Annie Sprinkle, in an interview with PopMatters, weighs in on the recent arrests of the Phoenix Goddess Temple members in Arizona. Quote: “For the people arrested, this was with out a doubt their religious practice, and not prostitution. So they are avoiding contact with sex worker rights organizations. So, whores don’t want to support them. There are tantra people that don’t want to support the PGT (Phoenix Goddess Temple) workers because they feel that they weren’t really practicing tantra and are bringing bad publicity to their wholesome image. It’s really shocking to me how so many in the tantra community were so whorephobic.” It should be noted that Annie Sprinkle uses the term “whore,” not as a pejorative, but in a context of reappropriation.

Witches in South Africa are blasting South African Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe for defending the Sunday Tribune’s use of the term “witch” in describing a murderer. Quote: “Real Witches, which he condescendingly calls “self-styled”, are regarded by Thloloe as attempting to use the office of the Ombudsman to proselytize their religion, not defend their collective right to dignity. According to the Press Ombudsman, any notion that actual Witches should wish to appeal against the defamatory stereotyping of witches in the South African media is ridiculous and can never merit anything but contemptuous scorn.” We will no doubt be hearing more about this from SAPRA.

Phaedra Bonewits has announced that she is beginning to auction off some of the possessions of her late husband, Druid leader Isaac Bonewits. Quote: “That does mean going through a lot of Isaac’s stuff, too. I kept so much of his, both because I wasn’t ready to part with it for myself, and because I thought other people might like to have something that once belonged to him. I have boxes and boxes of magical memorabilia, as well as boxes and boxes of books and music. And boxes and boxes yet unsorted. My winter will be busy.”The first batch, featuring mostly vintage Pagan music cassettes, is up on eBay now. It should also be noted that Isaacs papers are safe and sound, donated to the University of California, Santa Barbara for future scholars to access.

Jason Pitzl-Waters

“Paganism is not a religion.” My answer would be: “That is what the Romans thought about Christianity!”

Charles Cosimano

“Christianity was not a religion, it was an epidemic.” Colin Wilson.

http://heathenfaith.blogspot.com Norse Alchemist

Christianity is not a religion, it is a plague.

Lily

Hey all, let’s keep it civil please ^^ Comment ploicy says we should be polite to eachother and respectful of all religions, even if we don’t agree with them.

Thelettuceman

Strength to Christopher Turner and other children who are unfairly persecuted by bigoted abusers of authority. I had an unfortunate incident myself by having a very offensive teacher who took out his bigoted ways on me because I was a Pagan eighth grader. This is unacceptable.

Baruch Dreamstalker

“The goddesses don’t see themselves as whores. The whores see themselves as being looked down on by the religious ones and don’t want anything to do with the Goddesses.” –Annie Sprinkle on the Phoenix Goddess Temple arrests

This is a recurring meme, radical women so hurt by Abrahamic religion they want nothing to do with religion of any kind and miss the fact of woman-friendly, Goddess-oriented Paganism. There was a similar line-up against Z Budapest bringing Goddess content into the Michigan Women’s Music Festival.

Good to see Ms Sprinkle still in there kicking!

Harmonyfb

I’m appalled by a teacher bullying a student, but I’m not surprised. My brother had an elementary school teacher who bullied him so badly he developed a permanent aversion to school (it’s affected his career!)

You’d think that kind of behavior would be grounds for dismissal, but I guarantee that awful woman will still be working ten years from now, and still bullying the children she’s supposed to be caring for.

Thelettuceman

We had a science teacher in the middle school that physically grabbed a student by his throat and slammed him into the wall, because he was so enraged. Nothing happened.

Crystal Kendrick

I’m not anti-teacher. My mother and a lot of my friends are teachers, but I think a lot of us know one of those types of teacher. There was a special ed teacher who taught at my elementary school who slapped a kid ( I think it was for getting into a scuffle with another kid, but no one was hurt from it). I just remember the completely terrified look on his face. I always wondered as an adult why I never told my parents about it.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1006464595 Cathryn Bauer

How appalling to read of a teacher bullying a child in this way. She shouldn’t be in a classroom. For one thing, who was supervising those other kids while she was berating Christopher outside? For another, teachers are supposed to have basic knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the intelligence to know that this applies to them. I have other reflections on the perniciousness of a mindset, individual and mass, that calls its way the only way, but I’ll spare the WH readership this time >wggg<.

I have contacted Ms. Turner with some information about other free and low-cost legal assistance in the Greater Atlanta area. While I would hope that the ACLU would be able to take this on, there are other resources including a volunteer lawyers' group and the Legal Aid Society which will IMO very likely be able to help. Blessings to this brave mother and son.

I look forward to checking that out. Thank you. I am very hopeful that Ms. Turner will find the expert legal help she so desperately needs. FWIW, I have seen some truly excellent lawyering from Legal Aid counsel. In my court and deposition experience, they are often far more realistic about the situation at hand and seeing the big picture than some paid and county attorneys I know.

I have teacher friends who have spoken of the impropriety of engaging one child outside while the rest of the classroom remains without a teacher, but don’t know whether it’s actually illegal though I suspect so. It will be interesting to see. I do not believe that even if I were Christian, I would want my child in that woman’s classroom.

Daniel SnowKestral

School and legal authorities also compound the problem of bullying by taking an apathetic stance. The “boys will be boys” mentality is certainly a cop out. And deciding not to take a stance on the serious issue of bullying and its aftermath, they are only adding fuel to the fire.

I once had a home ec teacher in junior high who decided to do absolutley nothing in terms of kids spitting on me in class, calling me a “fag,” while throwing in some punches. He saw it going on and decided to turn a blind eye. The same school, too, from the principle to the couselor also wanted to do nothing about it until my mom stepped in and mentioned her lawyer (a damn good one, too), and publicity. They were then remonstrated for bullying and assaulting another student; I was sexually assaulted, too, but said nothing because I was ashamed, and also in the closet.

Being a Special Ed student, I faced harassment time and again. I stayed away from school, almost dropped out, and tried to commit suicide when I was 15 because I couldn’t deal with it anymore. It is a slap in the face to each and every student who suffers silently whilst authorty figures do nothing about it. These same kids were eventually suspended with nothing more than a “no you shouldn’t do that,” attitude.

In high school I was sexually assaulted on the schoo bus. Again, the bud driver, principle, and the school district wanted to do nothing–until, once again, my mom mentioned lawyer and publicity. He was suspended and the school bus driver was fired.

I am actually writing a personal essay/biography on my experiences. It has been healing and cathartic to be able to put thoughts and feeling to pen; I have to do it in stages, though, because old wounds are still being redressed and are raw, but it is a slow, thorough process–or Way of the Tortoise, lol. I am a lot better now, but still residues remain.

Thank you for sharing the link! Indeed, she does! And, as well, thank you for your thoughts and input